Gardeners know that the calendar year is an artificial construct. It's not even so much that the new year really begins in spring, as that to everything there is a season. Consequently, I find the concept of New Year's resolutions rather alien to my thinking and way of life. I am resolving to do better [...]

I myself would like to meet Death in the flower garden--falling facedown onto a cushion of Dianthus gratianopolitanus, if it's not to much to ask. ~ Elisabeth Sheldon, Time and the Gardener : Writings on a Lifelong Passion But last and best, I'd like to thank my grandmother Elizabeth McIver, long dead, who when told [...]